WINTER TABLE RUNNER

Time to change my table runner from Fall to Winter. I probably won't get around to changing it again till Easter so I wanted something winter-ish but not necessarily holiday themed.


I used a fabric called osnaburg (bought at JoAnn's).  It has the rustic look of burlap but it has a tighter weave which allows for nice stenciling.  Sort of holiday looking but easily stays on through winter.








I used some stencil sheets from Martha Stewart. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT buy these things.  I had a miserable time using this product.  I usually like her stuff but this is just trash.  Didn't anyone test this stuff out????? It comes rolled on a tube and curls mercilessly. It would not lay flat no matter what I did.  I curled it the opposite way, heated it, flattened it under a stack of books for three days and it still returned to the curled state. There are other stencil sheets out there so try one of those if you want to make your own.  The fun part was that I used a digital cutting file called FROSTED (SNOW) FLAKES from THE DIGI CHICK to make the stencil with my cricut.. I had to cut it twice but it worked perfectly.

The stenciling part was not so much fun because of the curling.  I had to hold part of it down with a book and use double sided tape all over the back to keep it down on the fabric. It was nearly impossible to clean because of the curling also.  I ended up running it under water after every application. Double ga-rrrrrr!  I used black all purpose MS paint and one of her round sponge brushes to apply the paint, both of which worked wonderfully well.

I wanted to put a few more snowflakes closer together but the bloody stencil was such a pain that it ended up here.... 

While the stenciling was drying, I printed out a little woodsy scene from COUNTRY CHEER (another digital kit from TDC) onto photo transfer fabric-also purchased at JoAnn's. Make sure you get the fabric and not the paper, it works much better for this project. I printed out the images then cut closely around the edges and ironed them on to the fabric.

  I next added some ribbon along the edge of the trees/bird. It  looked a little bare so I added some brads along the ribbon and in the center of the snowflakes.  I probably won't be washing this so no worries about the brads.

I cut two sides of the osnaburg and put them together with right sides together and stitched around the edges trimming the corners.   

Flipped it right side out, pressed the edges and that's it! 

Do you know how much these things cost ready made?  Love how this turned out and I am sure I will be doing another similar one for Easter since this one was so simple.  Of course I will be using a different type of stencil plastic!